Rikki & William

Rikki & William's Story:

My husband and I met when I was 29 and he was 37. Neither of us had been married before or had children from previous relationships. We enjoyed the newlywed stage and about a year into our marriage decided it was time to start trying for a baby. We had no idea how long and hard the journey would be.
We started like anyone else, tracking my cycle, then moving onto different ovulation kits, really anything we could do at home to try or get pregnant. But month after month nothing worked. About a year and a half went by and we decided it was time to see a doctor.
Our journey started rocky. The first reproductive endocrinologist office gave us incorrect instructions on how to provide a semen analysis. We were such newbies we had no idea it was wrong. They said my husband could give the sample and we could drop it off at the office whenever and it would be fine. So needless to say we got some pretty devastating results from the sample. Then after doing our own research we realized that was completely wrong.
I switched OBs three times to find one that would refer us to a fertility clinic so the sample would be done correctly. However the news still wasn’t great. My husband only had 1% morphology. We tried Clomid for 3 rounds with my OB and when that didn’t work I finally went to a fertility clinic myself. The OBs had kind of mentioned something about PCOS but never really said much beyond that. I had heard of it but didn’t know much about it.
We finally went to the clinic we had been trying for close to 2 years. After some testing, they determined I did have PCOS. We tried 3 more rounds of timed intercourse with letrozole and a trigger shot but we could only do it every other month because I kept getting these large cysts and would have to take birth control every other month for them to go away. It was so awful, wanting a baby so bad and having to fill a birth control prescription. That went on for 6 months and nothing so we decided to switch to IUI.
With all our doctor visits we kept getting conflicting information. We were referred to a reproductive urologist who said that not much was known about morphology but since I had PCOS “I was the problem” as to why we weren’t getting pregnant. It felt like a gut punch. It’s heartbreaking for a doctor to say you’re the problem. But then at our fertility clinic, they would say it was my husband because of his 1% morphology.
We did the IUI and it didn’t work so we decided to move to IVF. We were going to do it with our clinic in Michigan but with the medicine and genetic testing it was going to be $25,000. We figured we could refinance our house to pay for it.
Then I heard about CNY. At first, I think my husband was skeptical. How could we live in Michigan and do IVF in New York? But I did a lot of research and found a different IVF clinic that would monitor for us. Our current clinic wouldn’t since we didn’t do IVF there. The nurses there left something to be desired so I wasn’t that upset. Once we were coming home from up north so I had asked the week before if I could come in in the afternoon for my bloodwork and they said that was fine and didn’t relay it to the nurse who was going to be there. When I got there she asked if I “forgotten” about my appointment. How could I forget? All I wanted in the world was a baby. I left the appointment crying.
So we happily switched to CNY. We were scheduled for a consultation appointment in the beginning of October. Started IVF right away (without refinancing our house)and did the egg retrieval at the end of October. After about 3 years of bouncing around doctors and making no progress it felt so different. Like this was finally what was going to work. We did our first FET in November and got pregnant! I couldn’t believe it. It was finally our turn!
Now we’re very happily a family of 3 and figuring out when we’re going to do our next FET to try to give our little Thomas a sibling and we’ll just forever be so grateful to CNY for making it happen.

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

Dr Luthringer who did our FET and made our dreams come true.

Helpful resources Rikki & William found:

It starts with the egg was a great resource for me. I really changed a lot of my habits and environment.

Unique Moments:

The lows were when the REs office gave us the wrong instructions on how to give a semen samples, continuously having to take birth control due to cysts, and being told “I was the problem.”

The highs were getting pregnant from our first cycle.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

I listened to a podcast and the guest said “The majority of people who continue trying to have a baby end up pregnant.” That really stayed with me.